Zaha Hadid
Dame Zaha Mohammed Hadid may not be the most talked about name in American households, but it certainly is well-known within the British, and specifically the Iraqi-British, community. Most notably known as the first woman to receive the Pritzker Architecture Prize, Hadid has accomplished many firsts as a female architect throughout her career, making it one of the most impressive architectural careers to date.
Zaha Hadid was born in 1950 in Baghdad, Iraq to an upper class Iraqi family. With her childhood trips to ancient Sumerian cities in southern Iraq sparking her interest in architecture, she moved to London in 1972 to attend the Architectural Association School of Architecture. There she studied under Rem Koolhaas—who described her as a “planet in her own orbit”—and Elia Zenghelis—who stated that Hadid was the most outstanding pupil he ever taught. Hadid was known as the inventor of the 89 degrees during her time in London because nothing she created was ever at 90 degrees.
Once graduated, Hadid eventually became a citizen of the United Kingdom and opened her own architectural firm, Zaha Hadid Architects, in London in 1980. During the early 1980s, Hadid’s style introduced audiences to a new modern architecture style through her extremely detailed and professional sketches. At the time, most people were focused on postmodernism designs, which made her designs a different approach to architecture that set her apart from other designers.
The architectural style of Hadid is not easily categorized, and she did not describe herself as a follower of any one style of school. However, before she built a single major building, she was categorized by the Metropolitan Museum of Art as a major figure in architectural Deconstructivism. Her work was also described as an example of parametricism. An article profiling Hadid in the New Yorker magazine was titled “The Abstractionist.”
Guangzhou Oper House, China
At a time when technology was integrating into design, Zaha accepted the use of technology but still continue to hand draw her buildings and make models of the designs. This was because she did not want to limit herself and her designs to only what the computer could do. When Hadid was awarded the Pritzker Prize in 2004, the jury chairman commented, “At the same time as her theoretical and academic work, as a practicing architect, Zaha Hadid has been unswerving in her commitment to modernism. Always inventive, she’s moved away from existing typology, from high tech, and has shifted the geometry of buildings.”
On top of the Pritzker Prize, Hadid received the UK’s most prestigious architectural award, the Stirling Prize, in 2010 and 2011. In 2012, she was made a Dame by Elizabeth II for services to architecture, and in 2015, she became the first and only woman to be awarded the Royal Gold Medal from the Royal Institute of British Architects.
Hadid was described by The Guardian of London as the “Queen of the curve,” who “liberated architectural geometry, giving it a whole new expressive identity.” Her major works include the aquatic center for the London 2012 Olympics, Michigan State University’s Broad Art Museum, the MAXXI Museum in Rome, and the Guangzhou Opera House in China.
On March 31, 2016, Hadid died of a heart attack in a Miami hospital, where she was being treated for bronchitis. The statement issued by her London-based design studio announcing her death read: “Zaha Hadid was widely regarded to be the greatest female architect in the world today.”